The Little Home On The Waterway

[kenoro 1]

Keys Collection

After a good long 5yrs of waiting, we finally collected our flat keys on 26/2, and quickly paid a visit to our new little home.

Living:

Kitchen:

Passage way:

Garden View:

Waterway View:

Waterway: (photo taken by some neighbour)

[kenoro 1]

Reno - Paint and Laminate selections

Our color theme for our living and bedrooms is white + wood color combination, and for the kitchen, it's black + white combination

Tip: to make sure you choose the right laminates, visit the laminate showroom in Sungei Kadut to view the full-size samples. It's impossible to select the right laminate just by looking at the small sample in the laminate book.

Paint:

• Nippon Matex White: for most of the walls
• Nippon Vinilex Chestnut 5034: feature walls
• Nippon Vinilex Beige 5029: passage way's walls

Laminate:

Living - Wood color: EWP 4063M and EWP 4053M

Living - White color: EEP 0712PG (the one on the left)

Kitchen - Black and white: DYG 2409PG and DYG 2709PG

[kenoro 1]

Reno - Door-arm replacement

We learnt about uni-arm from other renotalk members, and decided to engage uni-arm to replace our existing door arm. We contacted Kelvin and made an appointment with him. He came on time (and brought his cute little daughter), took out the old door arm, and replaced it with the new one in less than 15 mins.

He then showed us how it works. Basically you can set an angle so that the door will stop (i.e. not auto-close) when it is pulled to that angle. Very useful, especially when there would be many deliveries later and we did not want the delivery people to scratch the door. Overall, we are very happy with this installation. Kelvin is also a nice and friendly guy.

[kenoro 1]

Reno - Electricity running

A few days later when we visited our flat, the running of all electricity wiring had been done

[kenoro 1]

Reno - Aircon installation

Bought Mitsubishi Starmex System 4 from Gain City:

• Condenser: MXY4A38VA
• Living Room: XMSYGE24VA
• MBR: XMSYGE13VA
• 2 Common Rooms: 2 x XMSYGE10VA

We also topped up another $129 to get 1+4 yrs of unlimited warranty.

On the installation day, we discussed how the pipes should be run. After that, everything was carried out smoothly.

Living room: the aircon fits the passage way's width nicely

Common Rooms: we decided to run the pipes inside the rooms, as they will be covered by the wardrobe later

MBR: after discussing with the ID, we decided to make use of the existing aircon's opening provided by HDB. And that means the pipes will run across the aircon ledge's window as can be seen in the photo below. But that it is ok since it will be covered by the L-shape wardrobe later anyway.

[kenoro 1]

Reno - False Ceiling

False ceiling and L Box were also up in no time

False Ceiling:

LBox - Living:

LBox - MBR:

[kenoro 1]

Reno - Carpentry

We went overseas for 2 weeks and when we came back, there were no changes to the flat

Then suddenly a few days later when we visited our flat again, all carpentry was up!

TV Console:

Cabinet and Study Area:

Shoe cabinet:

Kitchen:

MBR Wardrobe + dressing table:

Common Room Wardrobe:

[kenoro 1]

Reno - Data points conversion

We contacted BTO Home Networking and made an appointment with Kok Hua to convert the telephone points in 3 bedrooms + bomb shelter into data points. Everything was carried out smoothly and the guy even helped us fix the existing faulty data point provided by HDB in the living room. Thumbs up!

Main box:

Data Point:

Speed Test: speed test result with My Republic 1GB plan

Extender: We have tried many routers but none of them could provide a wifi signal that reaches my MBR. So decided to use a wifi extender that connects directly to the data point.

Edited April 26, 2015 by kenoro

[kenoro 1]

Reno - Moving in

Our renovation had progressed well but was not quite complete yet. However, we had to move in early as we had to hand over the current flat to its new owners .

We contacted a few movers and got their quotations: Elite Movers, Shalom, and The Gethsemane Care Ministry. The first two are established movers company, the last one is a Christian affiliated organization, which I learnt about from Jez's blog post.

All of them offered site survey to view the items to be moved, and gave us a quotation based on that. Elite Movers' and Shalom's quotation is based on the volume of the items, while The Gethsemane Ministry's one is based on truck load. He suggested 1 and a half or 2 loads for my barang barang, but from my own judgement, 1 load should be enough (as I would throw many items away) and I could move any left-over items on my own anyway. In the end, we chose The Gethsemane Care Ministry, since they offered the most reasonable quote, and we also wanted to contribute to a worthwhile cause. They gave us 30 carton boxes foc (they don't recycle boxes, meaning we can keep them after that).

On the moving day, things were smooth: no rain (phew... ), they came on time with 6 strong men (actually 15 mins earlier), cleared everything in 30 mins (yay...1 load was enough ), loaded them to the truck, drove to my new place, unloaded them, and carried them to my new flat. Everything was done in 2 hrs ! We were impressed, and decided to give 6 red packets as blessing

Tips: Since they will push the trolley into your flat, make sure you lay some corrugated papers to protect your new floor.

Our barang barang: (also includes 1 bed, 1 fridge, 1 washer, 1 treadmill)

Their truck:

[kenoro 1]

Reno - Curtains

A house is not a home without...curtains. Time for curtains! We wanted to do day & night curtains for all rooms (living + 3 bedrooms)

We contacted a few vendors:

• MGL Curtains
• JimmyTextiles
• Exquisite Rosewood Cushion Mfg Centre
• Ricky (recommended by ID)
• Vincent (very popular in Renotalk community)

In the end, we decided to go with Vincent. It was a no brainer decision really, after comparing his quote and others'. Of course at that point of time we could not verify the quality of his work, but you gotta trust the Renotalk community, don't you

And indeed, his price, workmanship, and service are superb! He showed his care for our little home: laying old curtains on the floor and sofa for protection, using a dust collector to make sure there is minimum dust when he drills the wall. He is also a cheerful guy. Thumbs up!

Living Room:

MBR:

Common Room:

Edited April 26, 2015 by kenoro

[kenoro 1]

Reno - Storage Shelving

The lift in our new block has been fully covered with advertisements, many of them are for storage shelving. Their 'factory direct' price looks attractive. However, after reading the details carefully, we realized that those with attractive price are actually not fully metal-based (wooden boards instead), and their boltless metal shelves are actually quite pricey.

In the end, we ordered our boltless metal shelves from Sim Win Liang, as they have many sizing options for you to combine to fit your storeroom size. We chose these 2 shelves, which fit our storeroom (2m x 1.4m) nicely:

• Classic Shelving, 50cm depth, 159cm length
• Slim Shelving, 40cm depth, 129cm length

Their service was good as well. We ordered on Friday, and managed to get them to deliver and install the following day They came and finished installing in 10 minutes!

Storage Shelving:

[kenoro 1]

Completion Photos

Living Room:

Breakfast table / bar counter:

Edited May 10, 2015 by kenoro

[kenoro 1]

Completion photos (cont)

Kitchen:

Passage way:

MBR:

MBR's toilet:

Common Room (as entertainment room):

Edited May 10, 2015 by kenoro

[kenoro 1]

Looking back...

It has been a fun and exciting journey to do our renovation. Overall, it was smooth and there was no major hiccups. We are very happy with the end result of the renovation.

Now that the renovation is over, it's time for us to look at everything again and share our judgements and recommendations:

ID (Nick):

• Cons: he has a 'blunt' character. Sometimes he did not reply my messages because he did not know the exact answer (well, we did not really expect an exact answer though). The workers did not pay due attention to protect our tile and parquet floors and some areas were damaged by paint drops (not really the ID's fault though, but maybe he should feedback to the workers).
• Pros: Most important of all, his price is reasonable AND he can deliver the end results, and is willing to rectify defects when it makes sense. His quotation is very clear and simple to read, and I find that most of his itemized price is lower than other quotations that I've seen (for that reason he does not offer much discount or give away 'free' things like what other IDs seem to offer, if you know what I mean - in the end you are the one to pay for those 'free' things anyway). He also never pushed us to sign up or pushed for payment. He always recommend practical things, so if something is not necessary and just waste your $, he will advise you against it, instead of just doing it to earn more. During the renovation, some of his advice was very good and we are glad we followed them. His carpentry is also of good workmanship. There were some minor hiccups during the renovation but generally we are happy with the final outcome. Update: good after-sale service. Though our renovation has been over, he is still willing to rectify some more defects.
• Recommendation: Yes, recommended!

Lights (LightInTheBox):

• Cons: 2 lights have defective parts (chips, scratches in the glass panel). One light has 1 missing screw, for 1 light the screws were not long enough (???), and 1 light is not bring enough
• Pros: fast shipment, and very good customer service. They agreed to send replacements for all the defective parts, and gave some coupon to compensate for the screw-not-long-enough issue. All lights look good.
• Recommendation: Yes, but please monitor the price to make sure you buy the item when it's on sale (I bought one light for 99 usd and now it's 49.99 usd! ). Also compare with taobao to see if you can get a better deal there (but of course please take note that you cant get the same after-sale service from taobao)

Downlights (Gary): very nice and bright. Price is lower than other shops. Recommended!

Kitchen/toilet accessories, lights, and other decoration stuffs (taobao):

• Cons: 2 lights are not bright enough as what they describe. 1 bidet spray has water leak. 2 lights have dents at the corners
• Pros: Most of the items look good and work well. The shower set with rain shower is fantastic!
• Recommendation: Yes, recommended. But you should do some calculation to make sure it makes sense to buy there (shipping cost, agent cost, risk of damage, etc.).

Sink and mixer (Hoe Kee): the Blanco silgranit sink is awesome. Recommended!

Furniture (Cellini): Items as expected, deliver on time, reasonable price. Recommended!

Appliances (Mega Discount Store): friendly people, good price for Bosch brand, willing to match price, delivery on time. Recommended!

Door-arm replacement (uniarm - Kelvin): friendly guy, and we are very happy with the new door arm. Recommended!

Data points conversion (BTO Home Networking - Kok Hua): friendly guy, and helped us fix the faulty data point foc. Recommended!

Curtains (Vincent): good price, service, and workmanship. Recommended!

Storage Shelving (Sim Win Liang): fast delivery, very nice shelf. Recommended!

Movers (gethsemane care ministry): reasonable price, no hidden cost, fun guys, on time and quick. Recommended!

This post concludes the main blog, but we will keep updating it. Thanks for reading and we hope you can find some helpful information in our blog. Happy renovating!

Edited July 17, 2015 by kenoro

[homesweethome96 0]

Hihi kenoro,

Do you have pictures to show your altar?

Was still thinking whether to buy or customize.

TIA!